Federal Politics
Doer supported a bid to draft former Manitoba Premier Edward Schreyer as a candidate in the federal New Democratic Party's 1989 leadership contest. When Schreyer declined to run, Doer tried to convince Stephen Lewis and then Bob Rae to enter the contest, without success. He eventually supported Audrey McLaughlin, who was elected on the fourth ballot of the party's leadership convention.
There was speculation that Doer would seek the federal NDP leadership in 1995, after McLaughlin announced her resignation. He declined, and instead gave his support to longtime friend Alexa McDonough, whom he nominated at the leadership convention. McDonough was chosen as party leader following the first ballot.
Doer opposed the New Politics Initiative in 2001. In 2002, he supported the leadership campaign of Bill Blaikie, whose federal Winnipeg—Transcona riding overlapped with his own provincial division. Blaikie finished second against Jack Layton.
Doer has disagreed with the federal NDP on some issues. He defended CanWest Global's takeover of a part of Conrad Black's newspaper empire in 2000, even though the arrangement had been criticized by the federal party. He later called for Svend Robinson to be demoted as Foreign Affairs Critic in 2002, after Robinson announced his support for the Palestinians in their conflict with Israel (official NDP policy was that both sides should seek a peace agreement). Doer was quoted as saying, "Either he represents the party as a foreign affairs critic or he's removed as foreign affairs critic. And I believe he should be removed". He later expressed disappointment that Robinson was allowed to keep his critic's role, albeit with a ban against speaking on Middle East issues.
Doer published a ten-point proposal for the future of the federal NDP in June 2002, calling for a focus on health and education as well as fiscal balance, community safety and election finance reform.
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